Penny-Pincher
by Bumi the Non-Bender
Summary: Bumi takes after his favorite uncle, and Lin most certainly doesn't. But since she loves the old goof, she agrees to take him to the grand opening of a VERY luxurious store - and it'll cost her! [Linumi fic where they have been married for irrelevant amount of time]


Penny-Pincher

Bumi woke at a decent hour for the first time in days. He let himself go over the weekend, sleeping in way later than normal. But there was something he had to do today – _**shopping**_! He had seen in the paper about a new place opening and he had to go, even if Lin was not exactly thrilled at the idea. She had agreed, after nearly an hour of begging, to take half the day off so she and him could go to the grand opening of Beltridges. He hadn't heard of the place before, but the ads made it look extremely appealing.

He got up and got ready, having to look more spiffy than normal given what was said about the quality of the store. He didn't mind, wearing great clothes was something he enjoyed. He decided he might even wear some fancy gloves for no real reason, just to class it up. When he was dressed, he left the bedroom and grabbed an apple as he went to his favorite chair to wait for Lin to get home.

He waited with excitement until the door clicked and Lin entered, pausing to look at him all dressed up. "Uh… you don't expect me to get all dolled up for this, do you?" she smirked, continuing into the room and closing the door. Apparently it had rained outside since she was in a soaking wet overcoat which she hung onto the hall tree.

"Gotta look good in public!" he laughed. "But no, you don't have to get all dressed up if you don't want to. Not like you wouldn't be recognized even in just a t-shirt." He leaned back in his seat but immediately sat back forward, "But don't wear just a t-shirt!" he called as she smiled and walked toward the bedroom to change.

Lin walked into the bedroom and shed her armor as she walked. Popping open the dresser, she looked through her clothes – many of which she never would have bought unless Bumi convinced her or surprised her with out of the blue as a gift – finally pulling out a deep blue dress that in her opinion would match well enough with Bumi's clothing. She quickly dressed, but refused to wear any dumb fancy heels which she never even took out of the box.

She had some nice enough shoes, and luckily the dress covered them for the most part. The way everyone is, they'd be looking at her scars or at how she was with Bumi more than anything else. Lin turned and walked out of the room, casting her gaze at Bumi, who perked up at seeing her actually dressing nicely for it. "Aw, Lin… you didn't have to do that."

She ignored him and walked over to grab her nicer coat as well as an umbrella before turning to face him, "Well? You comin' or what?" He smiled and stood, following her as they left the house and hailed a cab. The ride was a bit longer than most, the store being quite a distance from their residence. They pulled up to find that others had arrived before them, and were waiting by the door. Not surprisingly, there were some pretty big name people there – but none as big as a Beifong.

At first people were wondering what kind of person that could afford the wares sold in such a shop as this would arrive in a _cab_ of all things, but their banter was silenced when they saw who exited said vehicle. They walked up to the doors, waiting their place. It was 11:47 and the grand opening was set for noon exactly, and everyone was surprised when suddenly the doors opened without warning. A man in attire much nicer than anyone else's present emerged and walked past the crowd to Bumi and Lin, jovially offering his hand to shake.

He didn't really say much about whom he was or why he came out, but the next thing they knew they were inside and the doors closed behind them – leaving the rest of the crowd outside. They were led around each department as if they were royalty, the staff curtseying and bowing slightly at their approach. Finally the man left them, having taken up a good five minutes of the time they had been in the store, to shop on their own before anyone else could even see what the inside looked like. Lin wasn't impressed, but Bumi was giddy.

He buzzed from department to department, looking at anything and everything he could, dragging Lin along in tow. He held her hand sweetly through most of it, raising it to the counter for rings and bracelets to be tried on. She hated every second of it, trying to slip her hand away at any opportunity. Bumi wasn't going to let her get away, looking at her sadly. "Lin, I told you that you didn't _have_ to come with. Since you're here can you at least try to have a little bit of fun?"

She sighed, holding her hand out for him again. "You know I hate shopping…" she mumbled, doubting he'd hear or care if he had. He had already spent a few hundred yuans by the time he past the main department floor and saw the area for the tailor. He looked at her and nodded towards it. "Bumi no." she stood firmly planted in place.

"Bumi _yes_." he tugged at her, finding her difficult to move when she really didn't want to. The clock hit noon and the doors opened for the rest of the people, who glared at Bumi and Lin as they flooded inside. "Please…?" Bumi added with a small frown. Lin couldn't resist his sad faces when he made them, even if they were forced.

"Fine… But only if you promise to not force me into some dumb dress." He looked at her with a smirk.

"Deal." he dragged her along to the tailor area, browsing materials and different cuts. It was all extremely well made and would run a pretty penny for a decent suit. He looked at the most expensive cuts of fabric and Lin tried to convince him subtly to look at the cheaper things. Even with all her fortune, Lin was still a penny-pincher.

Finally he had picked out what he wanted for himself, the tailor taking measurements even with Bumi insisting he knew them by heart. The tailor was somewhat dumbfounded when he checked each one and found that – indeed – Bumi _did_ know all his measurements by heart. By the time he was done and the suit marked to be made, Bumi smiled at Lin wickedly.

She didn't know what the smile was for, but he headed to the women's department and she figured it out quickly. She tried to pull back from him but found it hopeless as she was forced to the counter to talk to a perky member of staff who pulled out a large tome full of designs and patterns to show a very disinterested Lin. After ten minutes of "What do you think of this, ma'am?" answered with "It's ok, I guess." Bumi finally had to step in.

Pulling the book away from Lin he fingered through the pages, pausing to hold it up to envision the look on her. "What about this?" he asked the girl, who at this point seemed eager to go along with anything, nodding emphatically. The materials for the dresses were directly behind her, and she pulled out the ones which Bumi pointed to. After holding up both a dark red, one that's shade changed when light hit is at a different angle, as well as an emerald green which went well with her eyes.

After a few moments of lifting each one to hold up next to Lin, he set them both down and went back to the book. He pointed to another design and the clerk wrote down the numbers that corresponded to both the dresses. The first design clearly looked better in the green, and the second was alright for either a black or red – but Bumi liked the red quite a bit. "We'll take both." he finally decided, setting the fabrics down.

Lin looked at him, slightly confused, "What do you mean 'both'? Isn't this partly my decision as well?!" She wasn't happy at the idea of having _two_ dresses when she didn't even want to be fitted for _one_, but Bumi wasn't going to have any of her complaints. She huffed, crossing her arms. A woman came along nearby and waved them over. It took her a moment to get situated and start to measure Lin, who looked at Bumi pleadingly.

He smiled and shook his head, "It's only going to be a few minutes… then we can go home, ok?"

"Fine…" she grumbled, letting the woman move her arms as she spun around her and measured for the dresses. After another few minutes of measuring and writing, she stopped and smiled.

"You're free to go!" she chirped, turning and heading off to presumably apply the proper cuts to the fabric for the dresses.

Bumi led her to the counter, thanking the employee and taking out his wallet. The absolute worst thing a salesperson could say to Bumi slipped out from her lips, "Would you like to open an account?" she smiled. Before the last word was finished Bumi was already agreeing and soon had his and Lin's names registered for the store. Lin felt like she had been hit by a bus, one second just going in to make Bumi happy, the next leaving with an account and nearly 5,000 yuans missing from her bank account due to the excursion.

He hailed another cab and they headed home, Bumi beaming the entire journey back. The store had offered to have everything delivered at once for them so they wouldn't need to come back just to pick things up, and Lin was grateful at least that Bumi'd not be back in there for awhile – moreso just that her pocketbook could have some breathing room. When they got back, she nearly ran to the door, aching to get out of the dress. Bumi followed closely, kicking off his shoes at the bedroom door. She started to slip it off, and his hand met hers on the shoulder. "I'll pay you back for all I spent today…" he said softly, kissing her now bare shoulder as the dress fell to the floor.


End file.
